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Female genital mutilation practice in Senegal

their higher odds of experiencing FGM practice by traditional practitioners was not statistically significant (likely due
to small cases among non-Muslim). Compared to women of Poular ethnicity, women of Wolof or Serer ethnicity were
associated 99% lower odds of experiencing FGM practice, but women of other ethnicities were associated 97% higher
odds to experience FGM practice. No differences were found by ethnicity regarding whether FGM was performed by
a traditional practitioner or not. There is no difference in prevalence of FGM practice across educational levels, but
women with higher education were associated with lower odds of experiencing FGM practice by traditional practitioners.
The richer a woman, the lower odds she had FGM practice, but well-off women were associated with higher odds of
experiencing FGM practice by a traditional practitioner. Women with media exposure were associated with 66% lower
odds of experiencing FGM practice compared with their counterparts without media exposure, but their lower odds ratio
of experiencing FGM practice by traditional practitioner was not statistically significant.
3.3. Women’s attitude regarding female genital mutilation practices

Table 3 presents the weighted distribution of attitudes toward discontinuity of practicing FGM among all 8649 women of
productive ages in the DHS 2019 survey. The results reveal that 15.6% and 68.6% of women viewed FGM practice should
continue and discontinue, respectively. The remaining 15.8% of women opted to select an answer either depends, do not
know, or refusal to answer. Bivariate analyses show that there was a statistical difference in distribution of attitudes by all
study variables. Specifically, 58.3% of women who experienced FGM practice answered continuing and 38.1% answered
stopping FGM practice, in comparison with 1.2% and 78.8% among those who did not experience FGM practice. The
proportion of answering “depends,” “do not know,” or refusal is much higher among those who did not experience FGM
practice (20.0%) and those who had FGM practice (3.6%).
Women who were older ages, from urban areas, not currently married, non-Muslim, Wolof or Serer ethnicity, with
more education, richer, and exposed to mass media were more likely to answer to terminate FGM practice. Women
with tertiary education had the highest proportion to view that FGM should be terminated (93.7%), followed by
the richest women (87.2%), urban women (81.5%), and the rich women (81.1%). Women who were never exposed
to social media had the lower proportion of supporting termination of FGM practice (28.5%). The poorest women
(38.4%) and women who experienced FGM practice (38.1%) had a proportion of supporting the termination of FGM
practice below 40%.
Columns A and B in Table 4 present relative risk ratio of women’s attitude toward whether the FGM practice should
be stopped or continued based on multinomial logit model using the 2019 DHS. The results show that women who
experienced FGM practice were more than 52 times as high as their non-FGM counterparts to view that FGM should
continue versus that FGM should be terminated. Compared to women aged 15 – 24 years, women of other ages were
36 – 47% less likely to support the continuation of FGM practice. Compared to their rural counterparts, urban women
were associated 47% lower risk ratio to support the continuation of practice FGM. Women who were Wolof or Serer
ethnicity were 61 – 69% less likely to support the continuation of FGM practice in comparison with Poular. The higher
level of education of a woman, the lower her likelihood to support continuation of FGM practice. Similarly, the richer a
woman, the lower her likelihood to support the continuation of FGM practice. Women who are exposed to media were
associated with 44% of lower odds of supporting the continuation of FGM practice. These multivariable analysis findings
are generally consistent with the bivariate analysis findings.
Older ages, married women, women from Wolof and Serer, women with higher socioeconomic status (educated and
wealth index), and women of exposed to mass media were associated with the lower odds of selecting their views on FGM
continuation with options of “depends,” “do not know,” and “missing.”

3.4. Relationship between FGM and STI knowledge, STI prevalence, and treatment seeking
Table 5 presents odds ratios of hearing about STIs/STSs (Columns A and B), having STIs/STSs (Columns C and D), and
seeking treatments among women who had STIs/STSs (Columns E and F) by FGM status. Columns A, C, and E only
included FGM practice, whether the respondent knew about STIs/STSs, and age, whereas Columns B, D, and F also
included other variables. Given the less reliability of results due to the small sample size for women who had FGM but
performed by non-traditional practitioners (2.2%, Table 6), we mainly focused on the comparisons between women with
experiencing FGM practice performed by traditional practitioners and women without FGM.
The results in Column A show that women who experienced FGM practice performed by traditional were 57% less
likely to know about STIs/STSs compared with women who did not have FGM practice when age was controlled for.
The lower odds were not altered even when many other key factors were controlled for (see Column B). Women with

104 International Journal of Population Studies | 2021, Volume 7, Issue 1